The HTC Vive brought VR to the people, now HTC wants to bring it to companies

9 November 2018

Transcript

HTC has been a major name in virtual reality since pretty much the very beginning.
And they mostly just have consumer headsets, except for the enterprise-level HTC Vive Pro.
Now they're going even harder into enterprise with a new headset, the HTC Vive Focus.
The Vive Focus might be new to the US, but it's actually been available in China since late last Steer and it's actually one of the easiest to use and wear VR headsets I've ever used.
Put it on is kind of just like wearing a hat.
You put it on and it's just a tiny strap in the back to adjust tension and you're done.
It's on, it's comfortable and it's lightweight.
The Vive Focus might be new for international markets and the US as an enterprise device but its stats haven't changed since its original release.
That of course includes a 2880 by Sixteen hundred display between both eyes, a Snapdragon 835 processor, and up to three hours of battery life.
Most importantly it's a standalone headset which means there are no wires and no needed PC to run it.
The entire VR experience is in this one single device.
In fact it's so good, it's almost a shame that the US release of this is purely enterprise.
All the demos we tried with the focus so far are enterprise and training focus.
Specifically we did a demo that taught instruction workers to make sure to wear their hat and be safer on the construction site.
As well as a training exercise for Volkswagen workers to make sure they know how to scan in their idea and sort parts in the appropriate bin.
There was one gaming experience however, but it wasn't directly to the end user.
It's enterprise as well.
A company called Modal was showing off a simple racing slash dodging game.
But is not designed for people to download and play at home, but is designed to be installed in arcades.
But HTC wants to take that to the next level which is why they also announced today a Vive focused developer kit that has two.
Six degrees of freedom tracking controllers, giving this stand-alone device capabilities more close that of the original HTC Vive.
There's no word on when that more advanced of the Vive will be available, but the regular version will be available for developers starting now $599 and enterprise customers for $749.